Mantena R Raju, the man who offered a garland worth Rs 8 cr to Lord Balaji

Raju's grandfather had commissioned similar sahasra nama mala for Lord Balaji 50 years ago when he was the chairman of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam

Last week, newspapers carried pictures of Mantena Ramalinga Raju, a non-resident Indian, standing alongside Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu with a jumbo-sized garland of gold. The garland, sahasra nama mala, which in Sanskrit means “thousand names”, weighed 28 kg and was worth Rs 8.36 crore. This was Raju’s offering to Lord Balaji on the opening day of the nine-day annual Brahmotsavam festivities at Tirupati.
 

News reports carried detailed descriptions of the extravagant offering. The garland was made of 108 coins, one for each of the 108 names of Tirupati Venkateswara Swamy, as the world’s richest god is popularly